Yesterday I was on the road and needed to check my email for a quote I expected. I stopped at a McDonalds Restaurant where I plugged in to their free wireless internet, downloaded my quote and was able to continue my journey with the information I needed. As I was cruising down the Interstate I wondered how exactely that had come about. The idea that my computer could connect to a network that included my company's email server and get a document I needed is almost beyond my comprehension. The evolution of computers, networks, servers, routers, the Internet and the people who have made it all work and continuously improved it boggles my mind.
I remember when the first personal computers came about. My company had a large mainframe to do A/R computing. It was cumbersome and slow but still way faster than doing it by hand. The personal computer's first "killer ap" as Bill Gates called it was word processing. Once people learned that this system could make typing documents easier it was adopted post haste and the typewriter went the way of the buggy whip. Since now we had documents on computer disks printers had to evolve to keep up with the speed of the computers and we went from large tractor feed printers to document printers and many new companies were formed and grew quickly. One such company Xerox had been doing some research on how to get different computers to all use the same printer and ultimately the Internet was born. Now this is probably an oversimplification but the internet was originally conceived by a private company to get an edge on the competition.
Originally the internet was slow and over phone lines. As phone companies moved to fiber optics the speed got faster. With faster speeds more things became possible. Innovators saw an opportunity to access millions of customers around the world with their applications. Where once we had the local hardware store selling shovels and rakes, nails and hammers to the local populace now from your living room through the internet you can sell anything and your market is the 2 Billion people worldwide connected.
The amount of wealth created across the internet/computer universe is something to behold. What will be the NEXT BIG THING.
I remember when the first personal computers came about. My company had a large mainframe to do A/R computing. It was cumbersome and slow but still way faster than doing it by hand. The personal computer's first "killer ap" as Bill Gates called it was word processing. Once people learned that this system could make typing documents easier it was adopted post haste and the typewriter went the way of the buggy whip. Since now we had documents on computer disks printers had to evolve to keep up with the speed of the computers and we went from large tractor feed printers to document printers and many new companies were formed and grew quickly. One such company Xerox had been doing some research on how to get different computers to all use the same printer and ultimately the Internet was born. Now this is probably an oversimplification but the internet was originally conceived by a private company to get an edge on the competition.
Originally the internet was slow and over phone lines. As phone companies moved to fiber optics the speed got faster. With faster speeds more things became possible. Innovators saw an opportunity to access millions of customers around the world with their applications. Where once we had the local hardware store selling shovels and rakes, nails and hammers to the local populace now from your living room through the internet you can sell anything and your market is the 2 Billion people worldwide connected.
The amount of wealth created across the internet/computer universe is something to behold. What will be the NEXT BIG THING.
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